FGW named Rail Business of the Year in 2015 and subsequent ongoing discussion

[whole diary]

[Adelante_CCT]

http://www.maidenhead-advertiser.co.uk/News/Areas/Maidenhead/First-Great-Western-named-as-Rail-Business-of-the-Year-27022015.htm

[TaplowGreen]

............I very much doubt it was customers who voted!!!

[ChrisB]

Other businesses, I suspect.

4 other awards came their way too

[Worcester_Passenger]

April has come early this year. Is this as a result of global warming?

[TaplowGreen]

Other businesses, I suspect.

4 other awards came their way too

Rail businesses! So a nice mutual backslapping session...........rather like those old pictures of Soviet Generals awarding each other medals!

[a-driver]

Its amazing how little research the media and the faceless Twitter account holders do.  They don't seem to realise there was an award for 'Rail Business Of The Year' and also 'Train Operator Of The Year' (which was won by Merseyrail).

[Chris from Nailsea]

From Western Morning News:

First Great Western 'best' rail firm

Rail users in the Westcountry may be surprised to hear that rail operator First Great Western has been recognised as the best overall Rail Business of the Year.

The company received the gong, at the leading rail industry awards, when it won in three other categories.

It comes merely a week after it was revealed that FGW^▸ (First Great Western) received the most delay-related tweets in 2014.

Scooping awards in Customer Information and Service for keeping the west moving during Dawlish; best Marketing Campaign for I^m Great Westerner and in Engineering Excellence for the Engineering team based at Laira Depot in Plymouth, FGW has been named as the Rail Business of the Year at the industry^s Rail Business Awards.

FGW managing director Mark Hopwood said: "While much focus has been put on the collapse of the sea wall at Dawlish and our efforts to maintain services, it also recognises the innovation shown to increase capacity for our passengers and provide them with the additional services we know they want to see; as well as reward those working on the shop floor and behind the scenes.^

Beating competition from over 20 other train operators, FGW was also highly commended in three other categories: Internal Communication; Technological Innovation for its joint ticketing partnership with Singapore Airlines, and the Diversity and Inclusion Award for our Respect and Dignity campaign.

The surprising news comes as 45,000 tweets were made last year about FGW^s delayed services, the most any rail operator has received in the UK^▸ (United Kingdom) in 2014.

The tweets followed a damaging Which? survey, which revealed growing dissatisfaction among rail passengers and prompted politicians and campaigners to call for an overhaul of existing services.

A separate poll by rail customer watchdog, Passenger Focus, also found overall UK passenger satisfaction dipped two percentage points from 83% to 81% between 2013- 2014.

[Super Guard]

............I very much doubt it was customers who voted!!!

Contrary to popular belief on forums & social media, there are many happy FGW^▸ (First Great Western) customers.

[broadgage]

............I very much doubt it was customers who voted!!!

Contrary to popular belief on forums & social media, there are many happy FGW^▸ (First Great Western) customers.

Indeed, and I am usually one of them.
FGW certainly have their faults but IME^▸ (in my experience) are better than most other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company). The Pullman sways my vote a bit, but also the First class lounge at Paddington, and the generally pleasant first class environment.
Whilst not ALL staff are as polite or as helpful as one would wish, I feel that on average FGW customer facing staff are better trained and more helpful than those of some other TOCs.

I have been subjected to the odd memorable c*ck up, but not really that many compared to the number of trips.

[ellendune]

............I very much doubt it was customers who voted!!!

Contrary to popular belief on forums & social media, there are many happy FGW^▸ (First Great Western) customers.

Indeed, and I am usually one of them.
FGW certainly have their faults but IME^▸ (in my experience) are better than most other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company). The Pullman sways my vote a bit, but also the First class lounge at Paddington, and the generally pleasant first class environment.
Whilst not ALL staff are as polite or as helpful as one would wish, I feel that on average FGW customer facing staff are better trained and more helpful than those of some other TOCs.

I have been subjected to the odd memorable c*ck up, but not really that many compared to the number of trips.

Not fortunate enough to be able to sample the first class experience, but I generally concur with this view. Much superior to XC^▸ (Cross Country Trains (franchise))  which is the other TOC I use regularly

[a-driver]

If I thought the company was useless, I would happily say so.  I've worked for two other TOCs^▸ (Train Operating Company) in my time on the railway and I know people aren't going to believe it when I say so, but FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have honestly got there heads screwed on, it's just a shame they haven't got a reliable infrastructure to run and the full support of the DfT^» (Department for Transport - about).
The other TOCs I worked for were happy to sit back and just run the franchise meeting the bare minimum requirements set down by the DfT, the only effort they made was to continually cut costs.  We watched as the good parts of the service were slowly axed, the state of the trains declined and morale plummeted. 
I've had former colleagues travel down to visit and they'll tell you my former TOC and FGW are worlds apart. 
Once again, if I thought the company was rubbish I'd happily tell you exactly the reasons why.  The only criticsim I have of FGW is that they could sometimes do with listening to suggestions from staff on the frontline a bit more when it comes to service disruption.

[TaplowGreen]

............I very much doubt it was customers who voted!!!

Contrary to popular belief on forums & social media, there are many happy FGW^▸ (First Great Western) customers.

-I think you've just identified a good idea for FGW's next marketing campaign............the "investment" one may quieten down a bit now we know it's going to be at least ^1 billion overspent and a year behind schedule.

[ChrisB]

Que? Guess you're confusing Network Rail's investment in electrification with a train operators investment in rolling stock & stations?

Not that easy to do on a forum like this one

[chrisr_75]

Que? Guess you're confusing Network Rail's investment in electrification with a train operators investment in rolling stock & stations?

Not that easy to do on a forum like this one

But FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have been trumpeting the 'biggest investment since Brunel" or whatever the tagline is, on FGW branded posters/adverts all over London, I think I've seen some in South Wales too - in seeing those advertisements, one could be lead to believe it was FGW funding the investment.

[TaplowGreen]

Que? Guess you're confusing Network Rail's investment in electrification with a train operators investment in rolling stock & stations?

Not that easy to do on a forum like this one

But FGW^▸ (First Great Western) have been trumpeting the 'biggest investment since Brunel" or whatever the tagline is, on FGW branded posters/adverts all over London, I think I've seen some in South Wales too - in seeing those advertisements, one could be lead to believe it was FGW funding the investment.

Guess they're confusing Network Rail's investment in electrification with a train operators investment in rolling stock & stations?